AZ Alkmaar made a quick start and were awarded a penalty in the sixth minute when Jerold Promes brought down Albert Gudmundsson in the box. Teun Koopmeiners dispatched the spot-kick to make it 1-0.

In the fifteenth minute, it was 2-0 for the visitors through Oussama Idrissi, who raced onto a ball over the top before slotting past Lars Unnerstall.

AZ was comfortable but in the 30th minute a sloppy ball in midfield led to a VVV counter and after Peniel Mlapa shook off two defenders he beat Marco Bizot to make it 2-1.

In the second half, AZ wasted chances to kill the game but it seemed they were going to see out the match when Peter van Ooijen was shown a straight red card for a late tackle on Adam Maher. However, in the 93rd minute, Patrick Joosten fired in an equaliser. It was initially ruled offside but VAR overturned the decision and the goal stood.

The draw means that AZ and VVV Venlo remains locked on 19 points. VVV are 7th with AZ one place behind them.